Turn of the Screw

Kristina Lee The Turn of the Screw: An Analysis of the Reliability of the Governess One of the most critically discussed works in twentieth-century American literature, The Turn of the Screw has inspired a variety of critical interpretations since its publication in 1898. Until 1934, the book was considered a traditional ghost story. Edmund Wilson, however, soon challenged that view with his assertions that The Turn of the Screw is a psychological study of the unstable governess whose visions of ghosts are merely delusions. WilsonпїЅs essay initiated a critical debate concerning the interpretation of the novel, which continues even today (Poupard 313). Speculation considering the truth of the events occurring in The Turn of the Screw depends greatly on the readerпїЅs assessment of the reliability of the governess as a narrator. According to the пїЅapparitionistпїЅ reader, the ghosts are real, the governess is reliable and of sound mind, and the children are corrupted by the ghosts. The пїЅhallucinationistпїЅ, on the other hand, would claim the ghosts are illusions of the governess, who is an unreliable